Harmful algal blooms are growing once again around Western Lake Erie, threatening fishing, boating

Toxic algal blooms are erupting around Western Lake Erie again in August. Streaks of the blue-green algae were plentiful around a Corps of Engineers dredge on the Toledo Shipping Channel in Maumee Bay.

(D'Arcy Egan, The Plain Dealer)

SANDUSKY, Ohio -- A green slime is blooming once again around Lake Erie and anglers, boaters and tourism officials are hoping it won't toss a toxic monkey wrench into everyone's fun on the water.

Under clear blue skies, pilot Alan Abele of Marblehead and I took off from Griffing Flying Service at the Sandusky Airport here on Wednesday morning, flying west over Sandusky Bay before heading to Maumee Bay, an algal bloom hot spot. We could see stains of blue-green algae from 500 to 1,000 feet overhead of the big lake's usual blue waters. While algae was just beginning to blossom along the shoreline, a toxic blue-green algae warning had been posted at Maumee Bay State Park's beach for the third straight year.

Abele banked the Piper Archer III for a closer look at the park's sandy shoreline area. It wasn't the pea-green soup I'd expected, but that wasn't very far away.

Abele cruised over the Toledo Shipping Channel at the mouth of Maumee Bay. A steady breeze had created windrows of white -- bubbles created by excessive phosphorus -- along the lake surface. Just under the waves were massive streaks of toxic blue-green algae around the Toledo Harbor Light, Turtle Island and a dredge barge near Toledo Channel Marker No. 2.

As we flew over the area, the algal bloom seemed to be growing by the minute.

Abele pointed to the brightest green bloom around a Corps of Engineers dredge barge scooping muck from the bottom of the shipping channel. The dredging operations in the Toledo Ship Channel have contributed to the algae problems, said Dr. Jeffrey M. Reutter, Director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie's Gibraltar Island.

"The phosphorus-rich dredge material from the shipping channel is being dumped just west of the channel in the open waters of Lake Erie," said Reutter. "The Corps moves roughly 1 million cubic yards of dredge material each year, dumping it in water that is only about 22 feet deep."

The dredge material, said Reutter, should not be dumped in Lake Erie at all, but confined to a disposal area on land or creating a shoreline peninsula to contain it.

Agricultural fertilizer and manure are the leading culprits for feeding algal blooms, especially when the phosphorus and nitrogen are washed off farm fields and into Lake Erie tributaries by plentiful spring rains, as happened in 2011. Sewage treatment plants are No. 2 in phosphorus loading, and a main offender has been the Detroit wastewater treatment plant. In the first seven months of 2011, it released nearly 30 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into the Detroit River and subsequently Lake Erie because of high volume rain events.

It was not surprising to watch the rapid expansion of the algal bloom during the short amount of time we spent flying over Lake Erie that morning. While fishing the open waters just east of Lucy's Point on Middle Bass Island in 2010, the westerly winds died and the drift-and-cast walleye fishing tailed off. My wife, Laura, and I decided to head northwest of the Bass Islands to another good walleye spot. When we returned only three hours later, the entire open-water area between the Bass Islands and Kelleys Island was covered with the green gunk.

It was the first time we'd seen such a mess of algae blossom so quickly, but not the last. In 2011, massive late September and early October algal blooms provoked by a steady spate of spring rains were the worst anyone had seen in decades. The toxic blue-green algae was devastating for shoreline businesses, chasing away anglers, boaters and tourists. Fishing a walleye tournament out of Huron in October, 2011, the algal bloom was so thick that it would slow down a fishing boat. Gobs of it could be easily scooped from Lake Erie.

"The good news is we predict this year's algal blooms won't be as bad as they were in 2011," said Reutter. "While we forecast it to be worse than 2012, fishermen and boaters will at least be able to avoid areas (experiencing an algal bloom)."

Algal blooms are generally at their worst from mid-August to early October. Executive Director Larry Fletcher of the Ottawa County Visitors Bureau in Port Clinton said he's creating informational material concerning algal blooms. Fletcher expects big crowds flocking to the Bass Islands area for the Bicentennial Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie on Labor Day weekend, when 16 tall ships will re-enact the historic fight. Fletcher hopes the sickly green cover of algae won't be around to greet them.

This year's blooms have been quite different than in 2012 because of a cool early summer and lots of wind and waves. The first major bloom outside of the Maumee Bay and Monroe, Mich. areas of Western Lake Erie had been along the Canadian shoreline of central Lake Erie.

"A few weeks ago, while flying over to Pelee Island (in Ontario waters), the bloom didn't begin until I crossed the border," said Tom Griffing, owner of Griffing Flying Service. The bloom also emerged in Ontario's Chatham-Kent area, directly across the lake from Cleveland.

That was unusual, because blue-green algae, also called cyanobacteria, generally moves from west to east in Lake Erie. Cyanobacteria can produce liver and nerve toxins that can sicken and even kill people, pets and wildlife. It is also blamed for creating the so-called "dead zone" in central Lake Erie.

"Southwest winds had pushed the bloom to Canadian waters, and it seemed headed for Cleveland," said Reutter.

A windy cool spell eventually broke up the mats of algae before they could cross lake Erie, and consistent northeast winds generally kept the toxic algae bloom confined to Western Lake Erie. Northeast winds the last two days have helped to keep the algae from spreading, but southerly winds are in the forecast.

"Things can change so quickly with an algal bloom," said Reutter. "We had a group arrive in the Bass Islands last week at about 10 a.m., and there was no algal bloom. When we went out on Lake Erie in a research boat that afternoon to show how we sample water, we found ourselves in the middle of a bloom.

"But as fast as a bloom can appear, it can also disappear. If you're alert, you can avoid them. The 2011 blooms were so massive in late summer you couldn't escape them."

To help anglers and boaters keep an eye on Lake Erie's harmful algal blooms, NOAA has created a weekly HAB Bulletin (http://1.usa.gov/1dzYJ9C) to show the location of the blooms using satellite imagery. NOAA also forecasts where the blooms could spread in the coming days.